There! little girl; don't cry! They have broken your slate, I know; And the glad, wild ways Of your schoolgirl days Are things of the long ago; But life and love will soon come by. -- There! little girl; don't cry!

There! little girl; don't cry! They have broken your heart I know; And the rainbow gleams Of your youthful dreams Are things of the long ago; But Heaven holds all for which you sigh. -- There! little girl; don't cry!

What do you think this poem is about?

Comments about this poem (A Life-Lesson by James Whitcomb Riley )

The great child's poet! What a wonderful time it must have been when the neighborhood children would sit on his porch drinking lemonade and listening to his stories.... A great man and benefactor to the Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis, one of the leading hospitals for children in the nation.... It is said that the neighborhood children brought up the fund for his memorial after his passing by donating coins. It is still tradition to leave coins at his memorial in Crown Hill cemetery in Indianapolis, which are used to aid the children's hospital.
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There was a song that went something like this: Now there's bubble gum/ All over your hair/ Your sling shot is broken/ But you mustn't care /... For cowboys never cry! I'm trying to recall the whole song. This poem reminds me of this song.
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Life is a great lesson, the suffering starts from childhood till end of life. First the dolls and are broken by peer group and later heart is broken by persons who we love.The life is tragic as well as comic.never cry for the loss. there is hidden voice appealing us to face life boldly. Nice theme is presented with suitable objects.
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Riley's 'A Life-Lesson' is not in any way a confusion of present tense or anything else for that matter. Our resident expert would do well to consult a source like Mary Kinzie's A POET'S GUIDE TO POETRY or THE NORTON INTRODUCTION TO POETRY (ed J. Paul Hunter) . Or so one would think after his most recent venture in interpreting someone else's poem.

Read the three stanzas carefully and you will note both the repetitive nature of the phrasing and the progression from innocent childhood through the onset of puberty and on to the last stage of clear-eyed maturity, when a more experienced woman can look back and assess her life and 'the things of long ago' which have all passed by in each successive phase from childhood to the anticipation of life's end and Heaven's reward. Note also the transition from 'play-house' to 'schoolgirl days' to 'youthful dreams'- in the more general sense that dreams refer not to that unconscious state of physical rest but to the hopes for a future of love and youthful promise being fulfilled in her life! It seems to this reader that Riley has written an excellent poem using the subtle device of repetition to enhance the meaning and significance of each line and stanza.
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There is something wrong with the tenses in the first two verses. The poet sees a little girl crying over her broken doll (in the present tense) , then says that such things are in the past. Similarly in the second verse, the poet solaces the girl with a broken slate, then says such things are “of the long ago”. The third verse is correct the broken heart comes after the dreams.

Perhaps the first verse (and the second could be similarly amended) should read: